In 2015, traffic deaths in the US rebounded to levels unseen since 2008. Halfway through 2016, motor vehicle fatalities were up again by 9 percent, as drivers have taken advantage of the lowest gas prices in over a decade. In a new report, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) suggests an obvious solution: drive less–or rather, invest in transit.
Traveling via transit is 10 times safer per mile than traveling by car, and cities with higher transit ridership have lower traffic fatality rates. Investing in high-quality transit, then, is an investment in saving lives. Convenient and accessible transit can reduce overall miles traveled and prioritizes the safe movement of people, not just the flow of private vehicles.
Vice Chairman Dinh-Zarr: public transportation is a tool for reducing roadway deaths & injuries @APTA_info @PublicHealth #NTSBmwl
— NTSB (@NTSB) September 7, 2016
The report notes two crucial factors in the link between fewer crashes and higher transit ridership: areas with high ridership tend to be denser and have streets that safely accommodate multiple transportation modes; and convenient transit gives higher-risk motorists (such as teens and seniors, as well as impaired or distracted drivers) an alternative to getting behind the wheel.
Such reasoning raises an important question:
So should transit be eligible for federal highway safety funds? https://t.co/kljdFOmwdA
— Tanya Snyder (@TSnyderDC) September 7, 2016
Last week, the White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a call-to-action in response to the significant uptick in 2015 traffic deaths. And as oil prices and unemployment fall, 2016 is shaping up to be even deadlier than last year. The relationship between more miles driven and motor vehicle fatalities is clear. Opening up more federal funds for transit is good policy for a number of reasons, such as congestion mitigation, greenhouse gas reduction, and economic development. It’s becoming clear that doing so could help reverse the alarming rebound in traffic deaths.
Celebrate the region’s biggest and boldest recent transportation initiatives at TSTC’s 2016 Benefit on September 27. Get your tickets here.
[…] Tri-State: Reduce Traffic Deaths By Investing in Transit […]
All true, of course. But it’s also true that policies to internalize costs of driving (through road tolls and the like) and/or costs of fuel (through carbon taxes or higher gasoline taxes) would almost certainly do far more to cut driving — and, thus, crash frequencies and casualties — than direct investments in transit (as desirable as those are).
[…] and state leaders in the region should follow in these footsteps and commit to funding high-quality transit and safer streets. In doing so, they could end up following through on some weighty environmental […]